Kane goes full circle in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — A true survivor, WWE Superstar Kane’s veins flow with a knack for wrestling in his blood, who shared the penchant for punching with his half-brother, The Undertaker.

The duo became known as the “Brothers of Destruction,” but Kane, whose real name is Glenn Thomas Jacobs, made a huge mark in his own right as Big Red Machine for WWE. Now in a new role as “Corporate Kane,” in a suit and tie, he keeps evolving as he’s done the last 22 years. In fact, he’s coming full circle this weekend at the live tour of WWE’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event starting at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Though some fans would rather see Kane don the fierce red mask instead of fine corporate threads, he’s as tough-talking as ever. As a member of Team Seth Rollins, with Rollins as captain of the team that also includes Luke Harper, Rusev and Mark Henry, Kane minced no words during a telephone interview Thursday with the Telegraph. Team Cena is Captain John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Ryback and Rowan.

“Of course there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of pressure on both teams, but if Team Authority loses, it means we lose our jobs; if Team Cena loses, with the exception of Cena, they lose their jobs,” Kane said. “I hate to tell those guys, they better get ready for the unemployment line because we’re not going to lose.”

St. Louis is a winning spot for the 22-year-veteran of wrestling, who debuted as Kane in the Gateway City and home of “Wrestling at the Chase,” on pay-per-view for WWE’s “In Your House.”

“It’s always good to come back home, really St. Louis is home for me, where I became a fan, where I debuted, in my first ‘Hell in a Cell’ match,” the superstar recalled. “Certainly St. Louis has been a big part of my personal history with wrestling and WWE.”

Kane, 47, has called Knoxville, Tenn., home now for the last 20 years, but considers himself from this area because his parents grew up in West Alton, Mo., while he grew up in Hannibal, Mo.

“We would come down; when I was a kid, I say we lived in the country where cable was out most of the time, and the closest all-star wrestling was out of Kansas City (Mo.), but once a month at grandma’s in West Alton, I’d watch ‘Wrestling at The Chase,’” he recalled.

He began wrestling in 1992, as an independent until 1995, when he became a WWF/WWE superstar.

The Survivor Series is WWE’s annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event held in November. It is one of the “Big Four” events, along with WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, as it is one of the original four pay-per-views produced by WWE.

Survivor Series is the second longest running pay-per-view event in WWE history, behind WrestleMania. The first Survivor Series, held in 1987, came on the heels of the success of WrestleMania III, as the then-WWF began to see the lucrative potential of the pay-per-view market.

After a short period of concern, now Kane is convinced of the talent WWE up-and-comers thanks to the corporation’s training facility in Orlando.

“I think the upcoming talent is great. For awhile I was very worried about the future of WWE because I worried about where the stars would come from,” he explained. “But WWE has done a fabulous job in partnering with Full Sail University, for WWE’s training facility. Some of the guys are second and third generations, but the thing about WWE’s training, is they learn our system before going on the roster, it’s more seamless. WWE’s future is bright.”

Most recently Kane revived his role in a full-length feature horror film series with “See No Evil 2” released exclusively on DVD and BluRay last month. He first appeared in “See No Evil” when he debuted as an actor about eight years ago. This time he worked with twin directors, the Soska Sisters, out of Vancouver, Canada.

“It was really great; they are rising stars in the horror genre,” he said about the experience. “What’s cool about ‘See No Evil 2’ is the way it’s shot. It’s not a typical horror movie, it’s ‘art-house horror,’ very cool.”

An obvious difference between playing to his WWE audience and a sound stage is feedback from fans.

“We have a live audience, we interact with them, they interact with us. There’s adrenaline, excitement — a sound stage is not like that at all,” he said. “With WWE, of course, since it’s live we do one take, and that doesn’t happen in a movie either. We do millions of takes, it gets repetitive, but acting is a lot of fun.”

He didn’t rule out more acting, just as he didn’t rule out putting on the red mask again.

“At some point, we will see that again,” he said about Big Red Machine. “In WWE never say never, but certainly I like what I’m doing now — Kane is Kane.”